
2025 Session Starts with 2,300 Bills and Continuing Capitol Construction Noise
After a season of exhausting campaigns and amid continuing Capitol construction, Oregon lawmakers go to work for real this week. They face big challenges but have the benefit of a rosy revenue picture unlike their Washington counterparts who are staring at a large revenue shortfall.
Oregon’s revenue pothole is the projected $1.8 billion annual shortfall in the Department of Transportation to pay for road maintenance. A traveling band of lawmakers toured the state last year gathering local views about road and transit needs. Now they will need to use that information to fashion a transportation package likely to include new tax revenues.
To get a running start, transportation leaders convened three workgroups assigned to fashion potential solutions for maintenance and operations, public transit and unfinished priority projects from the 2017 transportation package.
Kotek rejected the idea of using state general fund revenue to bolster ODOT funding. House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, sounded a sour note indicating she doesn’t trust ODOT leaders to keep their word on completing projects. One reason may be the delayed completion and large cost overrun on the Abernethy Bridge on I-205 between Oregon City and West Linn. When finished sometime in 2026, it will be the first earthquake-proof bridge on Portland’s freeway system. Construction also was predicated on imposing tolling.
State Budget and Looming Issues
The major task for lawmakers will be to pass a two-year state budget for the 2025-2027 biennium that begins July 1. Governor Kotek’s proposed budget totaled $39.3 billion. The latest revenue forecast indicated there will be $37.8 billion available to spend. There will be two more forecasts before adjournment that could predict additional revenue.
The biggest funding issues center on housing, behavioral health and K-12 education. Kotek proposed increases for each . She tied a major funding boost for schools to giving the Oregon Department of Education more authority to intervene in underperforming schools with high absenteeism rates, low graduation rates and low student proficiency in key academic areas.
Drazan signaled a major issue for the session – and perhaps the 2026 gubernatorial race – to move responsibility back to students and families, with support from education officials. “The pivot point shouldn’t be from small government to big government. The pivot point should be from the school to the family and the student,” she said.
Another looming fissure point is how much majority Democrats will coordinate with minority Republicans on spending measures. Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, who made a point in the interim to visit senators at their homes, said Democratic supermajorities in both the House and Senate mean they won’t be “held hostage” by Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham expressed frustration, claiming Republicans are being left out of key conversations related to funding. “That’s just an absolute terrible approach.” House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, said, “We’ve got to make sure that our government is working, and that it’s working for everyday people.”
Kotek declined to introduce major new funding proposals and legislators have pledged to look for government efficiencies, which can be thankless work. As CFM’s legislative team observed in its first client report of the new session, “Everyone’s for government efficiency and yet reducing the onboarding rate of state employees by two weeks and improving the transparency in the agency rulemaking process are the kinds of wins that bring smiles only to the nerdiest of the government relations types.”
Blizzard of Bill Introductions
Lawmakers returning to the Capitol were greeted with nearly 2,300 bills filed before the session. Bills on health care, education, emergency preparedness, housing, wildfires and nearly every other topic have been introduced. House and Senate leadership will begin sending the bills to their respective committees for consideration.
Housing remains a top issue, with Kotek pushing for more “middle housing” such as duplexes, triplexes and cottage clusters in more places, including on land outside city boundaries. “We still need lots of big apartments,” she said. “We’re never going to stop building single family standalone homes. We have to have middle housing to fill in the gap, and I think we’re just at the cusp of seeing more of this happening because people are getting more comfortable with it. The bill I’m working on will make that easier.”
Another high-profile issue addresses the need for more housing related to behavioral health care. Kotek is pushing for “intensive permanent supportive housing” that helps people with serious mental health challenges, including addiction, to live independently. A bill introduced by Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, would create a pilot program that offers emergency shelter for people on a waiting list for residential treatment.
Lawmakers also will look for a reliable funding source to pay for fighting wildfires. One idea would involve a one-time diversion of income tax rebates to set up an investment fund generating around $180 million per biennium in income to cover firefighting costs.
Senator Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, introduced legislation to allow the state to collect fees from fossil fuel companies to cover natural disaster expenses and climate adaptation investments.
Per usual, some of the bills are more amusing than significant. Three examples:
- SCR 13– Defines T-Bone as the official steak of Oregon.
- House Bill 2557– Prohibits raising an octopus for human consumption.
- House Bill 2592 – Makes intentionally releasing a balloon a crime of offensive littering.
Continuing Construction Noise
Capitol construction continues through most of this year, which limits public access to just a few hearing rooms, legislator offices and the House and Senate chambers. There won’t be any relief from loud construction noise.

Construction work done under the Capitol.
The Oregon Capitol has been undergoing a $598 million construction project to increase its seismic resiliency and accessibility. The final phase of the project, which began in 2022, involves creating a vast underground support structure and a moat around the building. Construction is scheduled for completion the end of this year, and the Capitol will fully reopen next year.
The remodeling project also includes adding new staircases and complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act. There will be new hearing rooms, a restaurant and LED lights in the Senate and House chambers. A new sprinkler system, smoke detection and conduits for the wireless network will upgrade safety for the building that dates back to 1938.